Former Marine in recovery is Broward's first homicide victim of 2013

FORT LAUDERDALE — — A softball-loving former Marine in recovery at a halfway house was the victim of Broward County's first homicide of 2013.

Christopher Valli, 46, was shot to death in his apartment at Third Step Recovery, 907 NW Fourth St., about 1:45 p.m. New Year's Day. No arrests have been made.

Valli had been at Third Step less than a month, going there on a referral after completing a 28-day recovery program, said Valli's mother, Karen, 74, of Margate.

"We didn't know what a horrible place it was until it was too late," Karen Valli said. "Third Step is supposed to be a place of safety for people in recovery."

Third Step did not return calls seeking comment.

Valli had a history of arrests in Florida and Connecticut ranging from cocaine possession and larceny to forgery and workers' compensation fraud.

"He's bipolar, has PTSD and he medicates with street drugs," Karen Valli said. "But I would really like someone to see him as something other than a recovering addict. There was much more to Chris than that."

Born and raised in Connecticut, Valli was a bachelor who had lived in South Florida for about six years and did construction work, Karen Valli said.

He was an avid athlete who lettered in football, soccer and baseball and graduated from high school in Middletown, Conn., with an athletic scholarship to the University of Connecticut. When a knee injury curtailed his college athletic career, Valli joined the U.S. Marines, Valli's mother said.

Karen Valli last saw her son on Christmas Day when he joined the family for a holiday meal and announced that he had landed a part-time job at a "burger joint and that it was a step in the right direction."

"He was very outgoing … not the kind of person that you would expect to have enemies," Karen Valli said. "You could just love him to pieces until he did something naughty."